Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched the Saral Eindhan Vitaran Application (SEVA), developed in-house by Coal India Limited (CIL) for power sector consumers, in New Delhi, today. SEVA is a part of ‘Digital India’ initiative, which is aimed at increasing the Consumer Connect as well as the Transparency and Accountability in Coal dispatch.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Piyush Goyal said that this app, along with other such apps of various Ministries of Government of India, is in line with Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of “Easy, Effective, Economical and Transparent Governance.” Shri Goyal further informed that for the benefit of all the citizens, the links for all mobile apps regarding Ministries of Power, Coal, NRE and Mines would be sent to the respective mobile number from which a missed call on the designated toll-free number 1800 200 300 4 is given.

Piyush Goyal added that this Government believes in suo motu dissemination of information of larger public interest and ‘m-governance’ would be the key to achieving this goal. These people-centric mobile apps would make the citizen empowered and hold the Government accountable for its decisions through increased transparency.

Talking about the SEVA app, the Minister said that there is a general perception that an app related to Coal dispatch would not be of importance for the common man. Contrary to this view, Shri Goyal said, by using this app the common man would be able to hold the Government accountable for the coal linkage allocations and would be able to check any pilferage or inefficiencies in coal consumption for power generation. This would, in turn, lead to rationalization of coal linkages and finally reduction in the power prices in the country. In near future, non-power sector mines would also be added in this App, the Minister added.

Earlier in the event, it was informed that the SEVA Dashboard provides a summary of the quantity of coal dispatched along with grades for the given day, month, and the latest yearly updates as well. It also provides information on rake movement including latest status of indents of rake, allotment, and loading. This would help consumers making advance logistics planning. Further, the app has a dedicated backend team to monitor the status of specific grievances from consumers and take action on the feedback received on the app. While much of the information on the SEVA Dashboard is available in open access, consumer specific data would be password protected.

The consumer friendly mobile app helps in tracking of coal dispatch to 118 Power Plants through Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) of around 500 MT besides, dispatch through Special Forward E-Auction and Bridge Linkage from more than 200 dispatch points spread over eight states of the country. Daily quantity involved is to the tune of 1.25 Million Tonnes involving the daily movement of around 195 coal trains besides dispatch through other captive modes of transport like MGR, road, belt, ropeways etc.

Other dignitaries present during the event were Shri Susheel Kumar, Secretary Coal, Shri Suresh Kumar, Additional Secretary Coal, Shri Sutirtha Bhattacharya, Chairman CIL and other senior officers of the Ministry and the PSUs under it.